Tecumseh: Analytical Essay

Alejandra Galaviz

HIST 1301 P01

Miller

October 16, 2017

Tecumseh: Analytical Essay

Tecumseh (1768-1813), was a Native American Shawnee warrior and chief, who became the primary leader of a large multi-tribal confederacy in the 19th century.  Tecumseh makes three main points in this speech.  All of them are designed to get Native Americans to rise and fight the Americans.  This speech was given as Tecumseh was preparing for what we call Tecumseh’s Rebellion, which started in 1811. Tecumseh’s first point is that the Americans have eradicated all the Indians in the east and will do the same to the Indians in the Midwest, where Tecumseh lived.  Tecumseh asks rhetorically what has happened to the “once powerful tribes of our race.”  He says that they have been destroyed by the Americans. Tecumseh then goes on to make his second point.  He says that the only way to avert this fate is to unite.  He decries the idea that any group of Indians can escape destruction by choosing not to fight the Americans.  He argues that the annihilation of our race is at hand unless we unite in one common cause against the common foe. Finally, Tecumseh argues that war is necessary.  He argues that the only way to have peace is to be ready and willing to fight when one is wronged.  He says that the people who will have the most peace are those… who timely prepare to vindicate themselves, and manifest a determined resolution to do themselves right whenever they are wronged. In other words, he says that people can only have peace if they are always ready to fight resolutely when they are wronged.